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短兵相接

Mandarin · pinyin duǎn bīng xiāng jiē

lit. short-weaponed soldiery fight one another (idiom); fierce hand-to-hand infantry combat
to fight at close quarters

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Characters in this entry

短: duǎn · short; brief; deficient, lacking
兵: bīng · soldier, troops
相: xiāng · mutual, reciprocal, each other
接: jiē · receive; continue; catch; connect

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–1–1–1 · duan3 bing1 xiang1 jie1

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

dyun2 bing1 soeng1 zip3

Cantonese word readings for 短兵相接. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to fight hand to hand; to be in close combat

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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